Quilting or tufting of pads, mattresses and the like incorporate the extension of a tie through the pad, for example, in order to compress the filler at the tie location. Many types of quilting ties or buttons have been developed for industrial use and a most successful button is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,174. Quilting machines for rapid insertion of such buttons are shown in U.S. Pats. No. 3,995,359 and No. 4,059,889. Relevant prior art patents are cited in the foregoing patents.
While the very high speed semi-automatic operation of the above-noted machines is very advantageous for large high volume operations, it has been found that many low volume or custom tufting or quilting operations can be served with a less complicated machine. The present invention provides a simple inexpensive tufting machine operated by foot power.